The following Poems of this Book are peculiarly dedicated to Divine Love*.

The Hazard of loving the Creatures. WHERE-E'ER my flattering paffions rove,

I find a lurking fnare;

'Tis dangerous to let loose our love

Beneath th' Eternal Fair.

Souls whom the tie of friendship binds,
And partners of our blood,
Seize a large portion of our minds,

And leave the lefs for God.

Nature has foft but powerful bands,

And reafon fhe controls;

While children with their little hands
Hang closest to our fouls.

Thoughtless they act th' old ferpent's part

What tempting things they be !
Lord, how they twine about our heart,
And draw it off from thee !

Our hafty wills rush blindly on
Where rifing paffion rolls,

And thus we make our fetters strong

To bind our flavish fouls.

*Different ages have their different airs and fashions of writing. It was much more the fashion of the age, when these poems were written, to treat of divine fubjects in the style of Solomon's Song than it is at this day, which will afford fome apology for the writer, in his younger years.

K 2

Dear

Dear Sovereign, break these fetters off,

And fet our fpirits free;

God in himself is blifs enough,

For we have all in Thee.

Defiring to love CHRIST.

COME, let me love: or is thy mind

Harden'd to ftone, or froze to ice?

I fee the bleffed Fair-one bend

And stoop t' embrace me from the skies!

O! 'tis a thought would melt a rock,
And make a heart of iron move,

That those sweet lips, that heavenly look,
Should feek and with a mortal love!

I was a traitor doom'd to fire,
Bound to fuftain eternal pains;
He flew on wings of ftrong defire,
Affum'd my guilt, and took my chains.

Infinite grace! Almighty charms !
Stand in amaze, ye whirling fkies!
Jefus the God, with naked arms,
Hangs on a Cross of Love, and dies.

Did pity ever ftoop fo low,
Drefs'd in divinity and blood?
Was ever rebel courted fo
In groans of an expiring God?

Again he lives; and spreads his hands,
Hands that were nail'd to torturing fmart;
By these dear wounds, fays he; and stands
And prays to clafp me to his heart.

Sure I must love; or are my ears
Still deaf, nor will my paffion move?
Then let me melt this heart to tears;
This heart shall yield to death or love.

IF

The HEART given away.

F there are paffions in my foul,
(And paffions fure they be)
Now they are all at thy control,
My Jefus, all for Thee.

If love, that pleasing power, can rest
In hearts fo hard as mine,
Come, gentle Saviour, to my breast,
For all my love is thine.

Let the gay world, with treacherous art
Allure my eyes in vain :

I have convey'd away my heart,

Ne'er to return again.

I feel my warmest passions dead
To all that earth can boaft;

This foul of mine was never made

For vanity and duft.

Now I can fix my thoughts above,
Amidst their flattering charms,
Till the dear Lord that hath my love
Shall call me to his arms.

So Gabriel, at his King's command,
From yon celeftial hill,

Walks downward to our worthless land,
His foul points upward still.

He glides along my mortal things,

Without a thought of love,

Fulfils his task, and fpreads his wings

To reach the realms above.

MEDITATION in a GROVE.

WEET Mufe, defcend and blefs the fhade,

SWEE

And blefs the evening grove;

Bufinefs, and noise, and day, are fled,

And every care, but love.

But hence, ye wanton young
Mine is a purer flame;

No Phyllis fhall infect the air,
With her unhallow'd name.

and fair,

Jefus has all my powers poffeft,

My hopes, my fears, my joys:
He, the dear Sovereign of my breast,
Shall ftill command my voice.

5

Some

Some of the fairest choirs above

Shall flock around my fong,

With joy to hear the name they love
Sound from a mortal tongue.

His charms fhall make my numbers flow,
And hold the falling floods,
While filence fits on every bough,

And bends the liftening woods.

I'll carve our paffion on the bark,
And every wounded tree

Shall drop and bear fome myftic mark

That Jefus dy'd for me.

The fwains fhall wonder when they read,
Infcrib'd on all the grove,

That heaven itself came down, and bled
To win a mortal's love.

The Faireft and the Only Beloved.

HONOUR to that diviner ray

That first allur'd my eyes away

From every mortal fair;

All the gay things that held my fight
Seem but the twinkling sparks of night,
And languishing in doubtful light

Die at the morning-star.